The results of the Korean men’s national volleyball team over the past four years have fallen short of expectations, despite the team winning gold at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

However, there is a belief that the team is moving in the right direction thanks to continued competition against some of the world’s top teams.

The national team finished third at the Asia Men’s Volleyball Championships in 2007 and 2009 and 11th at the 2007 FIVB World Cup. In the FIVB World League, Korea finished 10th in 2006, 9th in 2007, 13th in 2008 and 14th in 2009.

During the 2007 World League season, Korea won three matches and lost nine, but exhibited signs that they were becoming a world-class side in their own right during a close five-set battle with Brazil.

Korea lost their first chance to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games after finishing 11th at the 2007 World Cup, and unfortunately Korea could not grab the last ticket through the 2008 World Olympic Qualification tournament held in Japan in May, but the experience gained at both competitions helped the team prepare for the upcoming World League season.

Although Korea won only one match last season, the team put in great performances against top competition such as Russia, Italy and Cuba. These experiences helped the team claim second place at the 1st AVC Men’s Cup in 2008.

In 2009 many young players were called up due to injuries to a number of veteran players. However they fulfilled their role and showed the possibility of becoming main players of the team.

They then went on to pick up three victories during the 2009 World League intercontinental rounds, two over Argentina and one over Serbia. These victories gave the team more confidence against higher placed teams on the world rankings, even though their own final ranking place was 14th.

After the 2009 World League, Korea was ranked third place at the 15th Asian Senior Men's Volleyball Championship held in the Philippines. Korea showed a number of consistent performances but they lost their chance to advance gold medal match by losing to Iraq in a five-set thriller.

After finalizing the composition of Korea's team this year, the country's Volleyball Association is very satisfied as veteran players return to the team and the rookies such as Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim become main players to lead games.

In the 2010 FIVB World League , Korea are in Pool A with Brazil, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. We predict that the matches with these teams will not be easy, however, like before, Korea will keep trying to go from strength to strength in their performances and play the best matches they ever have.

The important aspect of the team is the return of Mr. Shin, Chi-Yong, the great commander. He has participated with the national team as coach at many international competitions such as the Olympics, the Asian Games, the FIVB World Championship, the FIVB World League and many more times over almost 10 years. And he achieved 1st place at the national winter league 12 times.

KVA predicts that Mr. Shin will strengthen the team taking every possible step forward and show good results for the coming season.

It is definitely undeniable that Mr. Shin, Chi-Yong, who returned to the Korea national men's volleyball team as head coach, is one of the top coaches in the country.

It was in 1989 when he led the national team for the first time. He coached the national junior side and participated in the 1989 FIVB Men's Junior World Championship in Greece, leading the team to 11th place.

After that, he filled the role of the Assistant Coach of Korea's national men's Volleyball team from 1991 - 1994. After being nominated as Head Coach of Korea's national men's team, he produced some excellent results in numerous international matches such as the 1999 FIVB World Cup, the Sydney Olympic Games and the 2002 Busan Asian game.

Mr. Shin achieved championship titles for nine consecutive years in the Korea Super League, the National Winter Volleyball League from 1997 to 2004 as well as three championship titles in the Korea V-League, in 2005, 2008 and 2009.

We expect Mr. Shin will show his own discerning leadership and make Korea better than ever before.

He was born in 1955 and has a wife, the former basketball player of Korea national team and two daughters.